1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method of managing a casual storage field, and further relates to an apparatus, an image forming apparatus, a computer program, and a computer readable recording medium storing therein a computer program for managing a casual storage field.
The present invention more particularly relates to a method of, an apparatus for, an image forming apparatus for, a computer program for, and a computer readable recording medium storing a computer program for managing a casual storage field that can store a plurality of information items therein and can hand over an information item received from an application program to another application program that accesses the information item.
2. Description of the Related Art
The related art relative to the present invention will be described below. A general user interface will be described first.
[General User Interface]
A computer system for office use is usually equipped with a display unit and various input units. The display unit is a two-dimensional display device such as a CRT and an LCD. The input units include both a keyboard and a pointing input device such as a mouse, a pen-tablet, a touch panel, a track ball, and a touch pad. The mouse is one of the handiest pointing devices. The pen tablet is also common for an application that requires inputting hand-written characters and drawings.
A screen is displayed in a window. The window is a square region of arbitrary size that is separate and independent from the other region. When the windows overlap, the window in the back is hidden behind the window in the front (overlapping window). The position pointed at by the pointing device is indicated by an arrow called a pointer.
The computer system stores a plurality of application programs, and runs one or more of the application programs simultaneously.
[Duplicating and Moving Data Item in a General Application Program]
In a general application program such as a word processor, a user can duplicate or move a data item. For example, the user selects an object, and gives the application program an instruction to duplicate or cut the object. In the case of cutting, the selected object is temporarily deleted from the screen. The user points at the position to which the user desires to duplicate or move the object, and gives the application program an instruction to paste the object at the position. In response to this instruction, the application program pastes the object that is duplicated or cut in advance.
The user can also “drag and drop” the object using the pointing device such as the mouse. In this case, the user presses a click button provided on the mouse, for example, with the pointer on the object, and moves the pointer with the click button pressed. When the pointer arrives at the position at which the user desires to duplicate or move the object, the user releases the click button.
[An Example of User Interface: Clip Board]
The present invention uses a user interface such as a clipboard. Operating systems such as Microsoft Windows 2000™ are provided with a mediate region called a clipboard through which a plurality of application programs can exchange the data item. The object is duplicated or cut and pasted through the clipboard. The clipboard temporarily stores therein various data items such as a string and an image, and also stores therein the data type of the stored data items. The application programs can exchange the data items with each other through this region.
The plurality of application programs stores data items therein or retrieves the stored data items in compliance with a predetermined procedure to exchange (duplicating and moving, for example) the data items with each other. The procedure with which the data items are stored to and retrieved from the clipboard will not be described in this specification since its technical information is available from the software vendors of such a clipboard.
Recent improvement in the clipboard provides the user with flexible duplication and movement of the data items. The improved clipboard stores therein data items one after another. The stored data items are listed in a predetermined region in the window of the application program. The user selects one of the listed data items and can paste at any time the selected data item in a document that the user is writing. If a plurality of application programs supporting the improved clipboard run simultaneously, one of the application programs can access the data items stored in the improved clipboard by the other application programs.
The improved clipboard can store therein data items of different data types.
[Temporary Storage of a Drawing]
The related art described in some patent laid-open applications will be described below.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2001-22734 discloses an information processing apparatus that can easily and efficiently display at sight a plurality of document files to the extent a user can identify the contents of the document files.
FIG. 34 is a block diagram showing this information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus of FIG. 34 is configured by the following: a display unit 301, a folder generating unit 302, a folder designating unit 303, a display controlling unit 304, an at-sight display file generating unit 305, and a document file selecting unit 306.
The display unit 301 displays a screen. The folder generating unit 302 generates, in a storage unit or a predetermined region of a network, folders of a multi-level hierarchical structure that can store therein plural document files generated by an application program having a document generating function or sub-folders. The folder designating unit 303 designates one of the folders generated by the folder generating unit 302.
The display controlling unit 304 displays at sight a part or all of the plurality of document files designated by the folder designating unit 303. The at-sight display file generating unit 305 generates an at-sight display file containing the contents of the plurality of document files designated by the folder designating unit 303. The document file selecting unit 306 selects one of the document files displayed at sight.
This related art patent laid-open application describes an application program of a word processor provided with a “work space function”. According to the paragraph No. 89 of this patent laid-open application, “the work space is provided besides the edited document so that the user can temporarily display a drawing and can layout the document efficiently.” “Since, even when the document is printed, the drawing is not printed, the user can edit the document efficiently.” In the above description, the edited document means a sheet of paper, and what is temporarily stored is the drawing. Additionally, this patent laid-open application fails to describe how to realize the temporary storage.
[Work Space]
The work space will be described below in connection with the user interface. The work space is also mentioned in the above patent laid-open application.
An environment in which a user can arrange a plurality of information items and tools that are provided by a computer system is proposed. Such an environment is known as an “information work space” system.
A plurality of representative information items (display objects representing the information items) are positioned in a certain space. The space is a predetermined region in a two-dimensional plane. Though the concepts corresponding to the space and the representative information items are referred to by various names in other documents describing the related art, the concept corresponding to the space will be referred to as the “work space” and the concept corresponding to the representative information item is referred to as the “information element” in this specification.
“Task Gallery” described in “The Task Gallery: A 3D Windows™ Manager”, Robertson, G. G. et al. (2000), In Proceedings of CHI' 2000, Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM press, pp. 494-501, is an example of the work space. This is a three-dimensional environment with which the user can improve the efficiency of tasks by managing documents and application programs to be used for each task. The work space is represented as if it were the room of a gallery. The information element (information item) is disposed on the wall or the ceiling of the room as a shrunk image of the document.
Likewise, many work space systems represent the disposed document as the shrunk image of the document (thumbnail). The use of thumbnails is reported to help users to efficiently identify the documents according to Czerwinski, M., van Dantzich, M., Robertson, G. G. & Hoffman, H. (1999), “The contribution of thumbnail images, mouse-over text and spatial location memory to web page retrieval in 3D”, In Sasse, A. & Johnson, C. (Eds), Human-Computer Interaction-Proceedings of Interact'99, Edinburgh, Scotland, IOS press, pp. 163-170.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2000-76367 discloses an invention of a work process management apparatus in which a user is provided with a plurality of work spaces and can manage information resources by the work space. Each work space is provided with a two-dimensional space dividable into a plurality of regions (background regions). An information element (information item) to refer to a document or another work space is correlated to each background region. Accordingly, the user can separately arrange the information resources in each background region. The above function can be regarded as a method to classify the information resources.
[Inspiration Support System]
By the way, an inspiration support system also requires a user interface. According to a well-known method of supporting inspiration, one can improve, by writing an information item on a card and appropriately disposing the cards on a two-dimensional plane, the efficiency of brain work such as an inspiration that requires the handling of abstract concepts.
For example, “A method of inspiring”, J. Kawakita (1967), Chuo-Koron, describes a method of supporting inspiration including the following steps: spatially disposing information elements (information items), grouping the disposed information elements, assigning a title to the grouped information elements, and correlating the information elements. One can compare ideas and analyze the groups of information elements, for example, using this method.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 7-98687 discloses “KJ method”, a method of supporting inspiration for a group. According to this patent laid-open application the opinions of members are summarized by the following procedure:
Step 1: A theme is determined.
Step 2: Each member writes an information item directly or indirectly relevant to the theme in a short sentence on a card.
Step 3: All members dispose their cards on a large desk so that they can read all the cards.
Step 4: The cards containing information relevant to each other are gathered so that the cards form an “island”.
Step 5: A super-ordinate concept common to all cards forming the “island” is extracted and written on a card (compatible card). The compatible card is put on the top of the stack of the cards belonging to the “island”.
Step 6: The above steps 4 and 5 are repeated. The stacks of the cards are disposed on a large sheet of paper based on the relevance between the “islands”.
Step 7: Each stack is spread out, and the cards belonging to the stack are attached to the large sheet of paper in accordance with the disposition.
Step 8: The cards forming the island are surrounded by a closed line of various colors and thicknesses. A relevance chart (or compatibility chart) is completed.
Step 9: All members make sure of the reasoning path to the conclusion based on the relevance chart.
Step 10: The conclusion and the reasoning path are reported or are explained to an audience.
Computer programs that realize such methods of supporting inspiration on computers are already available in the market as inspiration supporting systems (Inspiration 6: Inspiration Software, Inc., for example). Using such an inspiration supporting system, a user can display a plurality of display objects representing information elements on the screen of the computer and can edit the positions of the display objects. Some computer programs support not only editing the position of an information element, but also setting and displaying the following: the name and graphical expression of an information element, the correlation between information elements, and the grouping of information elements.
VIKI described in “VIKI: Spatial hypertext supporting emergent structure” (1994), In: N. Guimaraes, ed. Proceedings of ECHT94, New York: ACM Press, pp. 13-23, is a spatial hypertext system that disposes information elements and sets of information elements in a two-dimensional space.
This spatial hypertext system helps a user to express and understand the relationship between the information elements by spatially disposing a plurality of information elements. This spatial hypertext system has a similar function to the above inspiration supporting system in the sense that the user understands the structure of the information elements by spatially disposing and grouping the information elements. VIKI is provided with a function to extract and use an implied structure of the disposition of the information elements, which makes users to easily manipulate the grouping and understand displayed group structure. For example, when a plurality of information elements are disposed with the positions of their left ends aligned, the system recognizes that they are related to each other.
When creating a document, one may draw some drawings and write some paragraphs first. One may also pick up some drawings and some paragraphs from documents already created. Considering the order of description and the layout of the document, one completes the document.
If the collection of materials and the creation of a document are separated, the job becomes simple and efficient. In this job method, it is necessary to temporarily store a plurality of materials in a region (temporary storage field of information) and paste the materials, if necessary, in the document using an application program for editing the document.
In the case of a conventional duplicate & paste function, one can store the data of only one object on the clipboard.
Using an ordinary application program for editing a document, one can temporarily dispose required objects in the edited document or a newly created document for temporary storage. Accordingly, it is possible to manage the as-temporarily stored objects in a temporary storage state.
This method, however, inherits some problems. First, in the case where the material is disposed in the edited document, a temporary storage field is required in the document. One may have to lay out the document in a manner that is different from the writer's intention. It is confusingly difficult to discriminate between the temporarily stored object and an already laid out object.
Secondly, in the case where the material is disposed in the new document, the new document occupies a certain region on the screen. It is difficult to discriminate between the new document for temporary storage and the edited document because both documents are formatted by the same application program.
As described above, the improved clipboard temporarily stores therein data related to a plurality of objects by respective formats, and lets the user review the objects. The improved clipboard is displayed in a format different from that of the edited document. The user can easily discriminate between the improved clipboard and the edited document.
However, only the application programs provided by the software vendor that provides the improved clipboard can access the improved clipboard. The application programs provided by the other software vendors cannot access the data stored in the improved clipboard.
The improved clipboard still needs to be further improved with respect to its operation. Even when the user desires to store data in the improved clipboard, the user does not necessarily desire to duplicate or cut the data. In the case of the improved clipboard, the user is required to follow the procedure to duplicate or cut the data on the improved clipboard.
Additionally, the improved clipboard is available only while the application program provided by the software vendor that provides the improved clipboard is activated. Accordingly, the improved clipboard cannot hold the data stored therein until the improved clipboard is activated next time.
Furthermore, when the user works on different jobs and different documents in parallel, the user needs to use a plurality of temporary storage fields in accordance with the jobs and documents on which the user works. No clipboard supports such a requirement.
As described above, when a user creates a document, the conventional technique causes various problems.
In addition, an inspiration support system needs to process and arrange information to support a user's processing and arranging of information, and to inspire the user.
For example, using the above inspiration support system called “KJ method”, the users gather the cards to form the “island”, and write a super-ordinate concept common to all cards forming the “island”, and put the concept card on the top of the island.
The users dispose the stacks of the cards on a large sheet of paper based on the relevance between the “islands”, and spreading each stack, attach the cards belonging to the stack to the large sheet of paper in accordance with the determined disposition. The users surround the cards forming the islands by a closed line of various colors and thicknesses and complete the relevance chart (the compatibility chart).
Conventionally, such an inspiration support system functions as a closed system. The inspiration support system, however, needs to receive information elements from other application programs or to hand over processed information elements or the result of inspiration supporting.
The conventional user interface cannot improve the collaboration between the inspiration support system and the other application programs. The conventional clipboard and the improved clipboard cannot support such an inspiration support system that helps the user process and arrange information.
The temporary storage field for an inspiration support system, when many information elements are stored therein, needs to help users to appropriately manage and efficiently use the information elements. Such a temporary storage field is not proposed yet.
It is convenient to express the relationships between information elements stored in the temporary storage field. According to a known method, the user can move around the information elements in a certain region. The user can imply the closeness and similarity among information elements by changing the position at which each information element is displayed.
Information work space systems, for example, are equipped with such a function. The information work space systems, however, are not equipped with a function to receive data from other application programs or to hand over properly formatted data to other application programs. The function provided by the temporary storage field does not satisfy the requirement of the temporary storage field for an inspiration support system. The conventional temporary storage field does not disclose the technique to realize spatial disposition of information elements.
The user may want to define groups of information elements and arrange the information elements in accordance with the defined groups so that the user can manipulate the information elements easily. Accordingly, the temporary storage field for inspiration support systems needs to support such a function.
Some techniques to realize the grouping of information elements have been already disclosed. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2000-76367 discloses a concept “background region” with which the user can group the information elements. According to this conventional technique, an information element needs to be attached to one of the background regions from the beginning; it takes time to create a new group during a job, and to regroup the information elements. To the contrary, the temporary storage field for an inspiration support system needs to allow the user to define groups anytime, if necessary. The “KJ method” proposes a method of supporting inspiration based on the grouping of information elements.
If an apparatus that provides a temporary storage field is provided with a function to express groups of information elements, the apparatus can inspire the user using the grouped information elements. Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2000-76367 does not disclose a method of expressing the relationships between the background regions. The user cannot appropriately express the order and comparable relationships between the background regions, and the method fails to support inspiration using the grouped information elements. Thus, the grouping function that can be coupled with a method of expressing structure (to be described later) needs to be realized.
In addition, the grouping of information is usually hierarchical, that is, a group of information may include therein another group of information as a subgroup. The method of grouping information elements needs to support the hierarchical grouping.
The relationships between information elements generally include contrast relationship and causal relationship. These relationships may be expressed by an arrow, for example, correlating or connecting information elements. Inspiration support tools such as Inspiration 6 (Inspiration Software, Inc.) provides a function that connects information items by arrows.
Especially, “ISOP Cho-Hassohou Version 3.0” (ITEC Inc.) is aimed at supporting the “KJ method”. It provides functions such as the grouping of information elements and the correlating of information elements, or groups of the information elements.
Graphic editing application programs, word processors, and page layout application programs, for example, have functions such as disposing images, text, and drawings, and drawing rectangles and free curves. They further have functions such as grouping those elements, moving the elements in a block, and deleting.
These application programs, however, are not intended to provide a temporary storage field. For example, they do not support a function to exchange data of a plurality of formats with another application program. Such functions are inevitable for the temporary storage field.
The user may want to attach meta-information to each information element. XLibris is the conventional technique that allows the user to add free style meta-information to the information elements.
XLibris, however, is designed to support the reader of a document by enabling the reader to write comments on the document; the information elements are essentially shrunk and displayed in the form of thumbnails. As a result, even when a part of the document (only few words, for example) is displayed, only the thumbnail of the page is displayed. The user cannot recognize the contents of the information element at a glance. XLibris does not support a function to spatially dispose drawings and pictures. Due to the lack of these functions, XLibris does not satisfy the requirement of the temporary storage field for an inspiration support system.